Jan Balakian

Biographical Sketch: Jan Balakian (Cornell Ph.D., Brown M.A.T., Bucknell B.A. with honors) teaches literature and writing at Kean University. She has published essays about American Drama (Cambridge UP, Palgrave, Penn State), interviews: Arthur Miller, Wendy Wasserstein, Ionesco, a cultural studies book about the plays of Wasserstein(Applause), prize-winning screenplay, nytimes.com/2001/08/05/nyregion/professor-sees-her-life-become-a-movie.html, hosted int'l conference, "Why American Plays Matter," NJ Council for the Humanities. Jan’s 1989 student play won Cornell’s playwriting prize and contained the seeds for Dreams on Fire, written with Gran’s inspection ticket by her side. Dreams, set before the 2016 election, is the first play to tell the story of The Armenian Genocide and the transmission of trauma in the context of college students set before the 2016 election. See flier. Professional production Kean University, April 20-27, 2022. Ticket@Kean.edu or JBalakia@kean.edu for information. Bring your classes! Students are free and earn Co-Curricular Credit.